Koot Blog: moving on

Yup. We did it again. We moved to a new house! No more renting for the Koots, we are once again part of the home owning society! Although technically I suppose we still were, with our Holland home not having sold yet and all. You may want to keep your fingers crossed for us in that department. Nothing like the pressure that the financial responsibility of paying off two mortgages brings....

But let's not think about that now! We are blessed and truly thankful that we were able to put an offer in on this beautiful new home. We were ecstatic when it was accepted. Then we were substantially worried about the sale falling through, clear up to mere days before the final signing of deeds and titles over to our name. The sellers were in something of a financial pickle we found out over time, and had begun filing for bankruptcy which, if approved, could very well mean we would not get the house. It wasn't until we got word that the coast was truly clear and sunny that we allowed ourselves to get excited, and what a release that was! We hadn't packed up our rental home for nothing!

So let me tell you a little bit about this place so you can understand what has got me so over the moon lately.

1. It is located only 10 minutes from where we lived, just a lot closer to the beautiful South Ogden mountains. We have an almost unobstructed view of them from our front door.

2. We have a HUGE yard! For my Dutch family and friends, I honestly don't know what to compare it with. Maybe this will give you an idea: When we first went to view the home we brought Max and Elliot with us. Upon returning to the car after the viewing the first thing Max asked was "Hey mom, when can we go back to the park?". It is a child's paradise, complete with awesome wonky jungle-gym-swingset-playhouse-in-one.

3. The neighborhood is fantastic. We are in a very quiet cul-de-sac. When we moved in, the traffic in our street quadrupled. It is spacious, green, safe, and friendly. Of course the friendliness also quadrupled with us moving in. No wait, I think I mean the craziness. Yeah that was it...

4. The house is gawjuss. That's 'gorgeous' for when normal spelling just doesn't an object's perfectness justice. I love the light color of the bricks (yay bricks!), the pretty landscaping, and the way it lights up at night like something from a fairytale.

5. The house is also kinda, um, big. Like, a little intimidatingly so. There are no less than 7 official bedrooms (though there is an 8th room we will be using for guest sleeping purposes), 5 bathrooms, 2 family rooms, a separate dining room and what we call 'the music room'. Or what some people refer to as 'Caesar's Palace' because it has columns. Yeah you heard me, there are actual columns inside my house. It's kinda ridiculous.

6. But wait, we are not keeping all that square footage to ourselves! We totally agree with you that 8 bedrooms are a little much, even for a family with 4 children (though school is out and it feels more like 27). So we bought the house together with my parents, who will be moving into the 'basement'! I can hardly call it a basement because their entire living area is on ground level because of the way the ground slopes around the house. They have full windows in all three of their light and airy bedrooms, french doors to their walk-out patio that leads straight into the yard, a full bathroom, and a kitchenette. The basement also features a large family room that in essence will mainly be used by them. They are complete self-contained, but right there whenever we have family activities or just want to hang out. Right now it's live-in babysitters for us, and built-in care for when they grow too fragile to cut their own strawberries for them. Win-win!

7. We have room for guests! We might be most excited about this detail. Can't wait to have friends and loved ones over. You're going to be so comfortable in your room with your very own window seat and en suite bathroom!

Alright, that's enough for today. It's high time I showed you some pictures. Here are the visuals of (in order) the drive from the old to the new home, the heavy lifting, and some peeks at how we are making this new place our own. There is more to come in the picture department, but this should appease you guys for now.